Radiographic predictors of residual low back pain after laminectomy for lumbar canal stenosis: a minimum of 6-year follow-up

ObjectiveTo identify radiographic predictors of residual low back pain (LBP) after laminectomy for lumbar canal stenosis (LCS).MethodsClinical results and radiographic findings in 69 patients who underwent single level laminectomy for LCS were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who had an improvement in LBP scores evaluated by Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scoring system during the follow-up periods were classified as the recovery group, and others were classified as the non-recovery group. Patients' clinical data and radiographic parameters like lordosis angle, range of motion and intervertebral rotational angle were analyzed using binary logistic regression analysis to detect factors significantly related with the occurrence of residual LBP.ResultsThe average preoperative JOA score of 14.8 ± 5.05 improved to 21.59±5.51 at the final follow-up. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that significant predictors of residual LBP were preoperative lumbar lordosis angle and range of motion.ConclusionsOur results suggest that patients with flat back and limited lumbar mobility before surgery tend to have poor results in terms of LBP. Therefore, these sagittal radiographic parameters should be taken into account when choosing laminectomy as the surgical option for LCS.